![]() ![]() To solve this issue, I bought a label-maker and came up with a naming convention to keep everything straight. Since they all look the same – and are completely wireless – it’d be virtually impossible (no pun intended) to tell at a glance what went with what, once they were out of their cases. With a bunch of identical Go kits spread out in front of me, I immediately realized we’d need an effective way to track which controller went with which headset. Fortunately, I was able to allay most of those concerns once I got my hands on a few headsets of my own – for research purposes, naturally. These were critical questions that needed to be answered before I could commit to supporting Oculus devices in the classroom setting, no matter how excited Prof. If something goes wrong, how do I triage issues?.Will operating the VR accessories be intuitive for students?.Do we need to purchase the bomb-defusal game on each Oculus Go?*.Do they need to be tethered to a mobile device? If so, how many can you tether at once?*.Can “Go” products connect to University wifi?.VR headsets, though? Logistically speaking, that’s a different ballgame. Laptops, of course, are a tried-and-true technology with a predictable set of parameters that can practically be managed on auto-pilot they are a “solved” solution in that way, given that my team has been working with and troubleshooting classroom laptops for years. That being said, Facebook’s Go devices posed their own set of challenges – largely due to the fact that this was the first instance of the Learning Lab supporting a VR game. After all, with the limited amount of time between scheduled classes, there are precious few minutes to burn setting up an interactive learning experience (ergo, quicker is better). These are all key factors that play into the efficacy of supporting a technology-based solution at classroom scale. First off, they’re a lot cheaper ($249, as of this post), they don’t require wires or cables, and they’re compact (thus, highly portable). On the surface, Oculus Go kits present an intriguing value proposition over laptops. However, when Facebook released the Oculus Go, and Mollick subsequently discovered that Keep Talking was one of the available game apps, he asked the Lab to help him bring his bomb-diffusing entrepreneurship experience up to the next level – and into the realm of virtual reality (VR). Wharton professor Ethan Mollick uses the game to illuminate these and other learning points within the context of entrepreneurship, and has long partnered with the Learning Lab to deliver the simulation with laptops that we lend out from our Exec Ed group. The high-pressure play that ensues is a great lesson on teamwork, communication styles, and operating in a crisis. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a cooperative, team-based game where one player is trapped with a ticking time bomb that must be defused before it goes off, and their teammates are tasked with coaching them through the process with information found in a complicated Bomb Defusal Manual. The trick here is that only the defuser can see the bomb, and only the “experts” deciphering the defusal instructions can see the manual. ![]() West Learning Lab, Joseph Lee as he examines at the educational use of Oculus Go in the classroom. This is a guest post authored by the Wharton School’s IT Director for the Alfred J. ![]()
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